There's a reason that I've been making assurances for two whole days about the lack of a “gag post” for today's entry. Geeks and geek websites LOVE April Fool's day. Technology sites, gaming websites, webcomics, all love to come up with a phony image, new product/feature announcement or other humorous changes to their day-to-day web presence.
Social media is no exception, as YouTube gets in on the gag themselves, and your friends on Facebook, Twitter followers and other similar sites are likely to make phony updates to snare people who are both gullible and don't own a calendar. Don't get me wrong, I like these a lot, but some years, it feels like certain sites are trying too hard.
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| Mushroom Kingdom Hearts? Gmail Motion? Seven Dead in Protests in Syria? Wait... that last one wasn't funny. |
I'm going to link to a lot of the sites I'm talking about, but April Fool's jokes are frequently posted for a day, and then removed from the web, so if you come across this article on April 2nd or later, keep in mind that some of the links won't lead to anything funny. The usual suspects have turned out their annual April Fool's gags, and for me, two of the biggest and best have always been the World of Warcraft official Website, and ThinkGeek, the online shop for many, many assorted geeky products.
WoW has had some really good jokes over the years, announcing fake races like the Alliance Wisp, who is basically a sentient ball of light, and the Horde Ogre-Mage, who has two heads and is controlled by you and a randomly selected second player at the same time. This year, so far, we've seen three “announcements”, the first of which is most effective (and annoying) if viewed first.
- “Crabby”, a googly-eyed “Dungeon Helper” that pops up randomly on your screen to offer tips and advice is a great parody of Microsoft's “clippy”, the annoying paperclip assistant.
- The further announcement of the Tomb of Immortal Darkness dungeon, the gag being that you can't actually see anything (it is too dark), and “new gear” to give you tools to deal with the lack of light like a pet bat with a sonar ability, are almost as good.
- The fake “patch notes” for the next patch are potentially the funniest, but you'd only get the joke if you already play the game.
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| Oh, Crabby. Damn thing actually Rickrolled me with a link to Rebecca Black's "Friday." |
Thinkgeek has announced a long list of new products for this year, from the fairly innocuous Star Wars Lightsaber popsicle, Angry Birds Pork Rinds, to the less believable “Original Shirt Plate” or Official Playmobil Apple Store Playset... and the big one, the USB Minecraft Nether Portal. These last two are the best of the joke products, in my opinion, and the concept and photography on both are examples of why I turn up on Thinkgeek once a year.
- The Apple Store Playset has a small Genius Bar, miniature Apple employees selling tiny iPods, iPads and iPhones, and a Keynote theater where Steve Jobs can announce new products, using a REAL iPhone as a screen for his presentation. Of course, there are optional add-ons (sold seperately.)
- The USB Minecraft Nether Portal features a desktop version of the square gateway to a blocky version of hell, where documents can be “filed where they belong” after being pushed through the mystic portal to the land of lava and zombie pigmen.
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| Who could forget the classic ThinkGeek Unicorn Meat? This year's entries are less likely to provoke threats of legal action. |
There are countless pages of geeky April Fool's Day pranks out there this year, but these were some of the best, in my opinion. Were there any particularly awesome ones, from this year or years past that were your favorites? Discuss.
